by Nurat Uthman
Tanzanian police said Friday they have arrested four suspects over a gang rape of a girl that was filmed and posted online in a video that went viral.
“We have arrested four people who planned and committed the violence,” Tanzania police spokesman David Misime said in a statement.
“Our investigation is ongoing as we also continue to hunt two more suspects who are still in hiding,” he added.
Police had tracked down the raped girl, Misime said, “and currently she is receiving necessary support services, including psychological counselling, in a safe place.”
Rights groups have voiced outrage over the assault and the graphic video and demanded that the perpetrators are caught and face justice.
The incident first came to light when Boniface Jacob, the former mayor of Ubungo, a district of the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, posted about it on X on August 4, tagging President Samia Suluhu Hassan and the national police force.
He said the assailants were believed to be members of the Tanzanian armed forces, but this could not be verified.
Misime said several other people had also been arrested for spreading the video or posting false information over the incident, including saying that the victim and her mother had died.
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